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FOREST AND STREAM 
[July 21, 1894. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Planting Lake Trout Fry, 
For the past three weeks I have been fishing at Suna- 
pee Lake, New Hampshire, where one may catch land- 
locked salmon with smelt bait, Sunapee saibling or 
golden trout with minnows and black bass with the fly. 
One day while fishing for black bass with Fish Commis- 
sioner Griffen he said that complaints had been made 
about the manner of planting lake trout fry in waters of 
the State, in that the fry were planted in water so deep 
that the tender fry were killed by pressure of the water. 
While this is utterly absurd and groundless, he had had 
a test made by placing a lot of fry in a wire cage and 
sinking them to a greater depth than the fry were ever 
planted, that is to 60ft., and after twenty-four hours the 
cage was raised and the fry found to be uninjured. If 
Fish Commissioners give heed to all the idle complaints 
made by people who know nothing about the matter 
complained of they will be old before their time. 
The day that Commissioner Griffen and I were fly-fish- 
ing for bass there was a perfect ripple on the water for 
fly-casting, m fact it was for that reason that we started. 
We fished the shores and shoals in that "perfect fly-cast- 
ing breeze" for hours without taking a single bass large 
enough to kill, and then just at sundown, when the water 
was perfectly calm and smooth as a mirror, we picked up 
a few good bass. We had fished some of the best water 
in the lake and I was casting trout flies with a 5 Joz, rod 
and doing the neatest work I could, and could raise 
nothing but "T. S.'s" (too small) in the placid water, when 
we came to some rocks sticking above the water. By 
casting over and beyond the rocks I was able to take all 
the decent bass we got that day. Occasionally a rock 
which was a little below the surface would serve to shield 
the boats and occupants from the bass behind it, and a 
long cast would do the business for the fish, and all the 
time there was danger that the bass would do the busi- 
ness for the flies and leaders on so light a rod. One bass 
dived down into the rocks and apparently became fast, 
but by swinging the boat around in a circle be was drawn 
out to fight his way to the landing net. 
It is the general belief here that the bass have not come 
on to the shores and shoals yet, but I am satisfied that the 
bass have spawned and retired to deeper water. I have 
found no bass with spawn, and last year at this time (the 
last of June), I found many bass had not spawned. As I 
have been here since June 19, and have found no large 
bass on the shores as in previous years, I am forced to 
think that owing to the early spring that the bass have 
spawned earlier than usual in Sunapee Lake, which is a 
particularly good thing for future bass fishing in the lake. 
There are some queer things about bass fishing in the 
lake, but they will be subject for notes in the future. 
Preserving Fish for Specimens, 
A gentleman in British Columbia having promised me 
specimens of trout and salmon, regarding the identity of 
which there is some doubt, asked how they should be 
preserved, and as the fish will go to Prof. Garman at the 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, I asked him how he 
would have the fish sent in case alcohol was not to be 
obtained m the wild region where the fish in question 
are found. What he says may be of interest to others 
who desire to preserve fish for identification: 
"Good alcohol, and enough of it. is th« best preserva- 
tive for general use. If, however, your friend cannot get 
it conveniently, he can put up specimens so that they can 
be identified by using plenty of salt. Salt inside the gills 
and mouth; salt inside the belly among the intestines and 
salt around each specimen has brought fishes in good 
shape from long distances. They must not be allowed 
to rest against one another. Moss or excelsior filled with 
salt may be used to separate the specimens. They should 
be laid carefully in the salt with fins .moderately spread, 
and packed so they cannot move about or rub. They 
must not be taken out of the salt except to change to 
fresh salt for final shipment. Drying injures them and 
takes the color if kept out any length of time. Large 
and meaty fish are usually cut on the inside, so that the 
salt reaches all the flesh quickly. Along the tail small 
slits permit of rubbing in the salt. Small specimens in 
liquor are better sent in fruit jars. The mistake com- 
monly made is in not using spirits enough for the quan- 
tity of flesh." t 
As I was writing this I received a box of trout caught 
m the Trinity River, Canada, by my friend, Mr. Edson 
Fitch, of Quebec. When Mr. Fitch returned from fishing 
his river he sent the fish from Quebec to me at my home 
in New York State. There they were repacked and sent 
on to me here at Sunapee Lake, and by a mistake were 
delivered at the cottage of the New Hampshire Fish Com- 
mission. Fortunately Commissioner Griffen discovered 
the box a few hours after it was left on the piazza and 
brought it to me. I repacked the fish in ice, as they had 
made their long journey in this way, and have sent them 
on to Prof. Garman, and if they arrive at their final 
destination in as good order as when I received them I 
shall have something to say about them later. 
From the Trinity. 
Of the fishing on his river Mr. Fitch says: "I am sorrv 
to say we had poor fishing. There has been no rain on 
the north shore of the St. Lawrence all the spring and 
we never had a drop the fortnight I was there, conse- 
quently the river got very low, and the extreme hot 
weather put the water up to a temperature of 71° so of 
course the salmon all lay in the bottom of deep pools and 
no coaxing would get them to rise. We only killed 28 fish 
in the fortnight, but had some good trout fishing." 
From the Restigouche. 
Mr. Archibald Mitchell, of Norwich, Conn., also writes 
me about his fishing in the Restigouche: "I have not a 
big score to report, but enough fish fell to my rod, more 
particularly the last two days, to make the trip a verv 
enjoyable one without. They were all strong, fresh-run 
salmon, two of the fish had sea lice on them, and every 
one was as silvery as if taken in salt water, showing not 
a suspicion of the 'coppery tinge.' Every one was also a 
hard tighter, and nearly every one came for the fly in a 
way that 'makes glad the heart of any salmon fisherman ' 
exhibiting great eagerness to get it, making big boils on 
the water and m several instances throwing their heads 
and half of their bodies over the surface, going down 
with a splash. 
"The Encyclopedia Britannica states that, 'A salmon 
very often misses the fly in his eagerness, and when he 
does the very worst thing the angler can do is to pull it 
away from him, as after such a miss it is not at all un- 
common for a salmon to turn round hastily and make a 
second snatch at the fly which he rarely misses; but if the 
fly is whipped away from him he is frightened and dis- 
gusted, and goes down sulkily, refusing to rise again, 
"There are some anglers who have a different theory 
and whip the fly away from the salmon as soon as he 
has missed it, believing that if he comes the second time 
he is apt to see it too well and not take it at all, but I have 
always found it the safer plan to follow the advice of the 
Encyclopedia, and on this trip had a practical demonstra- 
tion that a salmon will not only come for a fly twice, but 
occasionally three times. 
"Having made an outside cast with a good length of line, 
when the fly was fishing at an angle of about 45° to the 
current, a fish came eagerly for it, making a big boil in 
the water, but missed the fiy; he turned around suddenly, 
came again as lustily as before, again missing, when to 
my surprise and delight he came for it a third time, but 
in a quieter manner, after the line had worked around to 
be almost straight with the current, and got securely 
hooked, making a grand and lively fight which lasted 
twenty-six minutes, and proved to be my largest fish, 
weighing 274lbs. On account of their great strength and 
gameness, I was obliged to spend half an hour with two 
of the fish; the others were killed in times ranging from 
11 to 26 minutes. The water was unusually low and clear 
for so early in the season when I arrived, and this condi- 
tion lasted until June 1, when we had a good rain which 
gave us a rise of 18in. , but it was five days after this before 
I got a fish, A second but smaller rise of water occurred 
three days before I left, and the fish coming at the same 
time gave me two good days, killing two on Tuesday and 
four on Wednesday." 
Mr. Mitchell's score was follows: 
May 29, 1 salmon 231bs 
June 8, 2 salmon, 2014, 20 ' . . 4<M4lbs 
" 12, 1 salmon , , 23i6s 
'• 14, 1 salmon '. isibs. 
' 15, 1 salmon 24lbs 
!! 3 ? saw, 25 " so^os. 
" 20, 4 salmon, 25)4 27}^, 20, 23 96ibs. 
2751bs. 
Average for 12 fish, 22" ]s lbs. 
A. N. Cheney. 
CONCERNING IZAAK WALTON. 
Izaak Walton is the patron Baint of all fishermen and 
the man who gave fishing literature its first start in the 
world; his main line of thought being the fish line, if it 
did take all summer. He was a unique character even 
to the spelling of his name, which he changed when a 
boy, or he never would have risen above mediocrity, he 
argued. In doing the circular work on the grindstone in 
the shed while his father got up and sat down on the axe, 
he used to advance the theory that with proper bait the 
fish in the creek would bite at a hook, his father taking the 
opposite side of the question with great zeal and logic; 
and s-ion the youth began to attend school with great reg- 
ularity whenever there was any school of fish in the creek 
to attend. He was seldom absent or tardy. 
He became a great angler, and while he was humane to 
children, in his philosophy he nevertheless maintained 
that fish should be brought up by the rod no matter how 
they kick against it. He was the first scientific fisherman, 
and it was he who discovered that spitting on the bait is 
one of the main things to success; and was the first living 
exponent of that other piscatorial virtue, patience, and 
could wait, and cheerfully too, longer for a nibble than 
any. 
There was no more entertaining story-teller around the 
corner groceiy of evenings than Ike, and he could hold 
his hearers spellbound by his account of the day's fishing, 
his stories being often of the longest kind, as sometimes 
were the fish. There was nothing small about Izaak. If 
he came in with a trout weighing 21bs. he never went 
around telling everybody he met that it weighed l^lbs. 
He always maintained that fish was great brain food, 
and therefore stimulating to the imagination. By long 
and exasperating experience he could tell to an ounce 
just the weight of any great corn-fed fish that happened 
to get away by the breaking of a new strong linen line 
or the snapping of a heavy hook. 
He is considered the father of most of the fish stories 
still extant and growing more extanter, and he is justly 
considered to be the first fish historian. He never had 
the heart to speak disparagingly of the smallest fish he 
caught; he had more respect for them, and would not 
take advantage of them and belittle them; and there are 
still many true anglers like him in regard to that. 
If he happened to come back after a day's fishing with 
a creel full of beauties he never kept them covered up 
and refused to allow anybody the privilege of looking 
therein, but most generously permitted them to inspect 
the catch and envy him his good luck. If asked where 
he had caught them, like a true fisherman, he always 
politely answered, "Over yander," and his questioners 
knew that was about as close as they could get to the 
spot and seemed satisfied. If he came home without a 
single fish, because the turtles had run off with the string 
full of the biggest fish he ever caught, he didn't lie about 
it by saying that he hadn't caught any. He told the 
truth, and if he had not caught a chub he showed them 
conclusively that the wind was just a mite too much 
southeast by northeast, or westsouth by northsouth, as 
the case might have been, or that the worms had been 
digged out of the south side of the barn instead of the 
other side, where the moon hadn't been shining of late, 
and the twins in the celestial constellations were in 
apogee and playing smash with each other. You see he 
was a philosopher and could readily explain anything 
without referring to a book. 
If he chanced to catch an extraordinary huge salmon 
which none of the villagers got an opportunity to see, and 
they would express a doubt about it, Ike would tell them 
he could take them right down and show them the very 
identical hole where it came out, and that of course would 
settle all questions, for the hole was still there. 
He was the ideal fisherman. If he did not pull up a 
fish, a tin can, hoopskirt or an old boot, he would bring 
out some sentence of logic that you would hardly think 
lay on the bottom of the creek for the crawfish or the tad- 
poles to crawl under and get out of the sun. His "Com- 
pleat Angler" is very catching, and shows just how a 
fisherman can improve his time to advantage when he is 
not getting bites. You should take it along and read it 
between bites. 
Izaak is the author of the following rare, ripe old saws 
with the teeth on: 
"Never count your fish till they are on the string." 
"A fish in the hand is worth six in the stream." 
"If you get a mosquito bite, jerk." 
"A fish is like your boy; if you give him too much line 
he will wear himself out." 
"Don't jerk hard enough to land your fish over in the 
next county." 
"It is plumb serious work to play a big fish." 
"Put no suckers on unless the string is small." 
"When you are not fishing mend your nets." 
"When you're fishing with a fly in it, be particular of 
the kind of fly." 
"Don't brag of your catch unless no one brags for you." 
"If your neighbor has plenty of nibbles and you none, 
borrow some." 
" 'You don't get a chance to pull my leg,' said the chary 
bass." 
"No fish, no trouble of cleaning." 
"You can't spoon for a bass and a girl at the same time." 
A. W. Bellaw. 
TEXAS TARPON. 
San Antonio, Texas, July 9.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: "F. S. C. J." says in your issue of June 80 that 
he doubts the stories of Texas tarpon fishing. These are 
his own words: 
. I have read with interest the attempts to boom Texas as a tarpon 
resort, which have appeared in Forest and Stream occasionally the 
past season. I have seen no communication as jet to ihese resorts 
from one who has had experience in southwest Fi jrida. These writers 
fall into the natural error of inferring that tarpon can be taken where 
the fish abound. There may be a thousand tarpon in sight, and 
twenty boats fishing with all proper appliances, and not a fish touch 
the bait. Especially must this be true of a place like Aransas Pass, 
described in the Cosmopolitan lately and in Forest and Stream. 
Forty five feet of water rule out bottom fishing, and although a fish 
might be taken by trolling, the capture would be at very rare 
intervals. 
In behalf of Texas I must contradict "F. S. C. J.'s" 
impressions. He could not have read the reports of your 
staff correspondent's trip very closely or he would have 
read the following- 
The home of the tarpon is in Aransas Pass. * * * The tides and 
winds cause strong outward and inward currents to prevail at all 
times, and in these seething waters the tarp n makes his home, his 
feeding and playground, and is to be found all the year around Here 
they spawn early in June, the young fish seeking the shallow grassy 
flats in the bay, where they remain until of sufficient size to keep oiu 
of the way of the big fish. In the month of July, while fishing for 
trout (weakfish), I have caught them 4 to 6in. long, and again in Sep- 
tember I have caught several from 8 to lOin. long. 
The fact is that the natural feeding and breeding 
grounds of the tarpon range for perhaps 200 miles down 
the coast, although they are easiest reached via the San 
Antonio & Aransas Pass Eailroad to either Rockport, 
Aransas Pass or Corpus Christi. 
Tarpon fishing in this vicinity has not reached the ad- 
vanced stage of Florida fishing, and consequently it is 
hard to give exact figures. However, I give the results 
of last week's fishing as far as I have heard, and in each 
case I will guarantee both the fish and weight: 
A party of six gentlemen from Dallas, Texas, landed 
six tarpon in one day, the largest weighing 1471bs 
Messrs. Ben. L Peck and H. L. Kokernut landed a 
tarpon weighing 1701hg. and a jewfish weighing 1241bs. 
J. T. McDarrell and T. C. McDonald landed two tarpon 
weighing 125 and MOlbs., each, and a jewfish weighing 
I29lbs. in one day. 
Robert Bncklin, of Providence, R. I. , landed a tarpon 
5ft. 3in. long, weighing 981bs. 
That makes ten tarpon of which I have heard, and I 
doubt not that as many more were caught of which no 
report has been made, as the natives here consider them 
a nuisance. 
. By the way, "F. S. C. J." says, as quoted above: "Forty- 
five feet depth of water rules out bottom fishing, and 
although fish might be taken by trolling, the capture 
would be at very rare intervals." While above in speak- 
ing of the Florida fish he says, "The tarpon is a surface 
fish, and I doubt that he pays much attention to what lies 
on the bottom," 
The fact remains that the tarpon fishing is excellent 
in Texas, and I will guarantee "F. S. C J." all the sport 
he wants if he will pay me a visit. W. M. S. 
Bluefishlng off Seabright. 
The manipulation of these veritable sea tigers, after the 
hook is wf>Jl set, requires judgment, nerve and entire ab- 
sence of "fish fright." They are determined in their 
frantic rushes and breaks to extricate themselves from 
the predicament they fully realize themselves in as soon 
as th prick of the barb is felt. An indispensable requisite 
to insure the boating of these fighters is a taut line from 
the time one is hooked until landed in the boat, and unless 
the angler (not rodster) is always on the alert, they are 
apt to get slack line, overrun it on the reel, and either 
part it or rid themselves of the hook. 
The waters off Seabright are excellent for the indulgence 
of this invigorating sport. My trips there have been fre- 
quent, and with rare exceptions crowned with success. 
Week before last a friend and myself brought ashore 35 
blues averaging 61bs., and last week 29 fish running from 
3 to 61bs., having lost perhaps a third more on each occa- 
sion by their being insecurely hooked. This was not to 
be regretted in our case, as their true fighting qualities 
entitled them to regain their liberty after such a brave 
struggle for it. These chances are denied them when 
caught with the murderous hand lines. 
A surf boat manned by two experienced men can be 
secured on the beach at Seabright by letter or interview, 
a day or two in anticipation of the trip. They provide 
the menhaden to chum with, and their charge for services, 
boat, etc. , is moderate. 
Should any of the readers of your very readable paper 
desire further details I will gladly give them. I have 
often read favorable fishing notes, but data as to whom to 
communicate with were lacking. I would suggest to any 
one contemplating a trial with the blues off Seabright to 
write to Clark Fisher, Seabright, N. J. It will meet with 
a prompt reply, and two more gentlemanly, obliging and 
careful boatmen than Fisher and his partner cannot be 
found where the blues run, c, T, P, 
